The daily business briefing: July 21, 2023

1. FTX sues to recover money from Bankman-Fried, other former executives

FTX lawyers on Thursday filed a lawsuit in Delaware bankruptcy court accusing company co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried and three members of his leadership team of stealing more than $1 billion shortly before the failed cryptocurrency exchange collapsed last year. The lawyers are trying to recover the allegedly misappropriated funds from the former executives and FTX's trading arm, Alameda Research. The suit claims Bankman-Fried took $10 million he is now using to pay his criminal defense bills by routing it through his Morgan Stanley and TD Ameritrade accounts as a gift to his father, legal scholar Joe Bankman. Caroline Ellison, one of the other executives named in the suit, allegedly paid herself a $22.5 million bonus later used to invest in an artificial intelligence company.

CNBC Financial Times

2. NFL team owners approve Washington Commanders sale

NFL team owners on Thursday unanimously approved Josh Harris' $6.05 billion purchase of the Washington Commanders from Daniel Snyder. The record-setting sale could close as soon as Friday. The deal sets up the first change in ownership for the pro football team since Snyder bought it for $800 million from the Jack Kent Cooke estate in 1999. Snyder owned the team for 24 years but never restored the success it had on the field under Cooke's ownership. As part of the sale process, Snyder will pay the NFL $60 million as a result of a league investigation that found he sexually harassed an employee and the Commanders kept some revenue they should have shared with other teams.

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The Washington Post

3. Google tests AI journalism tool

Google is testing an artificial-intelligence tool that can use details on current events to produce news stories, according to The New York Times. The company has demonstrated the product, currently called Genesis, to the Times, The Washington Post, and News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has returned to Google's Mountain View, California, offices for several days a week in recent month to work with researchers developing the tech giant's next major AI initiative, the Journal reported Thursday. His presence marks a change from the "hands-off approach he adopted after stepping down from an executive role" in 2019, the Journal says.

The New York Times The Wall Street Journal

4. Stock futures rise after Dow extends winning streak

U.S. stock futures rose early Friday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday rose for the ninth straight day, its longest winning streak since 2017. Futures tied to the Dow and the S&P 500 were up 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively, at 7 a.m. ET. Nasdaq futures were up 0.5%. Transportation stocks CSX and Knight-Swift fell sharply in pre-market trading after they reported quarterly results that fell short of Wall Street expectations. The Dow gained 0.5% on Thursday but the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.7% and 2.1%, respectively, as investors reacted to mixed earnings reports, although 73% of the S&P 500 companies that have reported second-quarter earnings so far have beaten analysts' expectations, according to FactSet.

CNBC

5. Tornado damage at Pfizer plant could worsen shortages of some drugs

A tornado that damaged a North Carolina Pfizer factory this week could further strain U.S. drug supplies at hospitals, The Associated Press reported Thursday, citing health care industry experts. The tornado tore up the roof of the factory, which makes nearly a quarter of Pfizer's sterile injectable medicines used in U.S. hospitals, the drugmaker said. The plant makes drugs for anesthesia, infection treatment, and use in surgeries and intensive care units for patients on ventilators. The massive plant has 22 packaging lines and 1.4 million square feet of manufacturing space. The damage could result in shortages of some drugs as Pfizer rebuilds or shifts production elsewhere, Erin Fox, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health, told AP.

The Associated Press